Monday, January 09, 2006

Blacaman the Good Vendor of Miracles

I thought that this story was boring compared to the other stories I have read even though it proabably had more irony. The story is about Blacaman the bad who is a horrible person, he is very evil and he fools people to get money. Everything starts realistic but goes to more magical towards the end when Blacaman gets his magical powers. Blacaman the good is the narrator and the one who gets tortured by Blacaman the bad. He gets magical powers and cures people. Example of this can be found on page 279: "...drawing the fever out of malaria victims for two pesos, visioning blind men for four-fifty, draining the water from dropsy victims for eighteen..." Didnt wanna bring back dead people though: "The only thing I dont do is revive the dead, because as soon as they open their eyes, they are murderous with rage at the one who disturbed their state, and when its all done, those who dont commit suicide die again of disillusionment." Basically, the story is about life and death. Blacaman the good is even worse than Blacaman the bad because of the things he has learned from the bad. It is an abuse of power. Cruel end of the story: "...I bring him back to life once more, for the beauty of the punishment is that he will keep on living in his tomb as long as I am alive, that is, forever". He is not giving him the privelege to die, he wants him to suffer forever.